[aron]

Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah

On 9/11 I had to walk out of Manhattan and as I crossed the bridge and looked back a huge pillar of smoke was rising from where the Twin towers were...

A couple of days after 9/11, I was looking at a satellite photo of NYC from space, showing the column of smoke rising through the atmosphere and into the troposphere. Most of the photo covered the land area of NJ/NYC/CT, but much of the photo showed water (the Atlantic Ocean). As I was looking at the photo, I remembered that quote from Revelation 18, of the ships' captains looking on from afar, seeing the smoke rise, and mourning how in one moment the great city fell.

11 "The merchants of the earth cry and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargo anymore. 12 No one buys their cargo of gold, silver, gems, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, bright red cloth, all kinds of citron wood, articles made of ivory and very costly wood, bronze, iron, marble, 13 cinnamon, spices, incense, perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, wagons, slaves (that is, humans). 14 'The fruit you craved is gone. All your luxuries and your splendor have disappeared. No one will ever find them again.' 15 "Frightened by her torture, the merchants who had become rich by selling these things will stand far away. They will cry and mourn, 16 saying, 'How horrible, how horrible for that important city which was wearing fine linen, purple clothes, bright red clothes, gold jewelry, gems, and pearls. 17 In one moment all this wealth has been destroyed!' Every ship's captain, everyone who traveled by ship, sailors, and everyone who made their living from the sea stood far away. 18 When they saw the smoke rise from her raging fire, they repeatedly cried out, 'Was there ever a city as important as this?' 19 Then they threw dust on their heads and shouted while crying and mourning, 'How horrible, how horrible for that important city. Everyone who had a ship at sea grew rich because of that city's high prices. In one moment it has been destroyed!'

I never heard anyone question why terrorists wanted to attack those 2 buildings. Why not a corn silo in Iowa? Why not the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam or Mount Rushmore? Maybe nobody questioned it because it was self-evident. Think about the three words denoting that cluster of buildings: The Center of World Trade. Revelation 18 is appropos: "wheat, cattle, ivory, fine linen and jewels..." etc etc ad infinitum.

Now because of my study on what was happening in Sudan I knew that Iraq and Al Qaida were two very different entities. I also knew that justifying an attack on Iraq because of human rights abuses was complete hypocrisy since the two biggest abusers by Amnesty international's account were our two allies: Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. So I knew the US was responding with defiance...

There was a photo on the front page of the New York Times about a week after we invaded Afghanistan. The picture was of a big map of the Middle East on the wall in Taliban Headquarters. Everywhere the U.S. military had a presence there was a U.S. flag pinned to the map. There were probably a dozen flags pinned there. Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan, Kuwait, UAE, Mediterranean Sea, Somalia, Oman, Qatar, Persian Gulf, etc.

I was looking at the photo of that map and I realized that in the mind-set of the Taliban, the U.S. had already invaded the Middle East. One great tragedy of our foreign policy is that we (U.S.) thought that because we have more guns, we don't have to consider (i.e. respect) what the other guy is thinking; what his/her value set consists of, etc. If you don't agree with us, and respond "apropriately", we will come in and shoot you.

In that sense, I have been repenting, continually, for our empty commercialism, our futile tweets and facebook posts of what we ate for breakfast. I repent for the fact that 4 sets of terrorists on airplanes caused our country to abandon decades of fairly successful foreign policy (i.e. "containment"), and become a shoot-first nation.

(For U.S. policy of 'Containment', see e.g. http://future.state.gov/when/timelin...ntainment.html )

I have already told the story of the fundamentalist church where I met in 2002/2003 whose pastor was rabid to invade Iraq and "christianize" that nation. Believe me, I think there is plenty to repent of.

I guess there are three ways someone can respond:

You could scoff -- US is not a Christian country, these events are not harbingers of God's judgment, etc.

You could repent --

Or you could do nothing and just hopes it all goes away.

What I scoff at is sloppy scholarship. Most religious polemicists I have read are too sure of themselves, or too afraid of the truth, to consider other viewpoints. They don't admit any weakness to their argument. They don't consider alternative explanations. Etc. And that goes for a lot of non-religious ones as well. I don't know if you ever saw the video "Loose Change" which basically said the attacks on the twin towers & Pentagon was a hoax to steal gold, or some such.

Even if their charges were credible, the whole thing was so sloppily done and insulting to my intelligence that I simply could not sit through it. I am not an 8-year old. Please don't talk to me as if I were. If you want me to respect your ideas please don't treat me with such a lack of respect.

If I too quickly lumped Cahn with such people, I apologize. I liked your list posted under "escapedfromthecurse".